The sweet smell of success

Abstract

________________________________________________________________________Olfaction, or smell, is one of the last challenges which multimedia applications have to conquer. As far as computerised smell is concerned, there are several difficulties to overcome, particularly those associated with the ambient nature of smell. In this paper, we present results from an empirical study exploring users' perception of olfaction-enhanced multimedia displays. Findings show that olfaction significantly adds to the user multimedia experience. Moreover, use of olfaction leads to an increased sense of reality and relevance. Our results also show that users are tolerant of the interference and distortion effects caused by olfactory effect in multimedia. Categories and ________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTIONOlfactory enhanced multimedia displays concerns themselves with associating computer generated smell with other media in order to enrich the users' experience and perception of a multimedia presentation or application. That olfaction-enhanced multimedia is a challenging research area is reflected by the relative paucity of research works in this area.Current usage of olfaction in multimedia has mostly been limited to the area of multimodal information displays, particularly in the area of presenting system and application output in alternative modes for end users. In such systems, there are different output modes available for presenting information, but only one data medium is used at any time to convey the required information and olfactory data usage in such application systems would often be used in response to, or to signify, the occurrence of some application event. Our interest with olfaction in multimedia displays is however concentrated with its usage when combined with other media. To this end, olfactory data may be used to enhance the meaning and provide clarity of user presented information and increase the sense of reality and enjoyment in multimedia applications. Most of the existing work done using olfactory data integrated with other media objects has mostly been done in the virtual reality field (Boyd et al., 2006;Dinh et al., 1999;Drolet et al., 2009;Jones et al., 2004;Kaye 2001;Nakamoto et al., 2008;Richard et al., 2006;Tijou, Richard and Richard, 2006;Washburn and Jones, 2004;Zybura and Eskeland, 1999), and only one of the reported cases shows any significant results to show that adding olfactory data to such systems impacted on the sense of reality of the application quite considerably.

On the influence of individual characteristics and personality traits on the user experience with multi-sensorial media: an experimental insight

“…The magnitude of this effect was different across groups of participants with different levels of conscientiousness. This outcome supports previous results revealing a significant impact of wind, vibration and light and olfactory effects on the perceived quality and sense of reality of video, respectively [25,94]. As for binaural audio, a cross modal impact (i.e.…”

“…Olfactory effects have been found to have a positive influence on the perceived quality, relevance and reality and on the reported enjoyment of a multimedia experience. Ghinea and Ademoye [25] propose the use of olfactory data as a mean to enhance the meaning and provide clarity of user presented information and increase the sense of reality and enjoyment in multimedia applications. To explore users' perception of olfaction-enhanced multimedia, the authors conducted an experiment using six video sequences; two cookery shows, three documentaries and one piece of news broadcast.…”

“…A growing body of empirical evidence supports these theoretical premises. Sensory effects as odor, wind, vibration and light effects, as well as an enhanced audio quality, have been found to favour media enjoyment and to have a positive influence on the sense of Presence and on the perceived quality, relevance and reality of a multimedia experience [19,25,54,74,90,94]. In particular, action movies, sports, news and documentaries are among the genres that could benefit the most from these solutions [95].…”

Adding Scent to Television Broadcasts by Using Closed Caption Data

“…With the development of olfactory displays, an attempt has been made to use of scent technology in various media [9] [10]. Although current media are typically formed from visual and aural stimuli, humans make judgments by unconsciously processing information obtained through all five senses.…”

Audio Masking Effect on Inter-Component Skews in Olfaction-Enhanced Multimedia Presentations

“…The past century has witnessed generations of multimedia applications, including transitions from analogue modulation to digital media, single-audio, single-video playback to multimodal multichannel presentation, and two-party bidirectional communication to large-scale multiparty sharing using the Internet [Huang et al 2007]. With new user interface devices like haptic devices, olfactory displays and other associated sensors now commercially available, research and industry are working on extending the list of media and applications with so-called "new media" like e-touch [Cha et al 2009], e-taste [Narumi et al 2011] and e-smell [Ghinea and Ademoye 2012]. The result is the emergence of multisensory communication and experiencesmulsemedia (multiple sensorial media 2014]).…”